Early voting in Ohio opened October 6th and runs until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 1st, ahead of the November 3rd general election. The governor’s race and your state representative are on the ballot, and those are the politicians who decide whether the Freedom to Carry Act and SAPA ever get an up or down vote. Below: every way to vote and every deadline, the photo ID rules, the governor’s race, and the record on the legislators who voted to table Freedom to Carry and SAPA.
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Early voting STARTS today
Your gun rights are on the ballot.
Early voting in Ohio starts today. From this morning until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 1st, you can walk into your county board of elections, show your photo ID and cast your ballot in the November 3rd general election.
And make no mistake, your gun rights are on that ballot. The governor’s race is on it. So is your state representative, and your state senator if your district has a race this year. Those are the politicians who decide whether the Freedom to Carry Act and the Second Amendment Protection Act ever get an up or down vote. Every pro-gun vote counts, and a vote you cast early is one nobody can talk you out of later.
Here’s everything you need to make your vote count, starting with the deadlines.
Every way to vote, and every deadline
1. Check your registration first
The deadline to register was Monday, October 5th, so it’s too late to register for this election. But you can still make sure you’re registered at the right address. Check your registration at voterlookup.ohiosos.gov.
2. Vote early in person: today through Sunday, November 1st
Go to your county board of elections, or the one early-vote site your board designates. Find your county’s early-vote location here. The hours are the same statewide:
| Tue, Oct 6 to Fri, Oct 9 | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Mon, Oct 12 to Fri, Oct 16 | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Mon, Oct 19 to Fri, Oct 23 | 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 24 | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Mon, Oct 26 | 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. |
| Tue, Oct 27 | 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. |
| Wed, Oct 28 to Fri, Oct 30 | 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. |
| Sat, Oct 31 | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Sun, Nov 1 | 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Mon, Nov 2 | No early voting |
If a day isn’t on that list, there’s no early voting that day. That includes the Saturdays of October 10th and 17th, Sunday, October 25th, and the Monday before Election Day.
3. Vote by mail: request by Tuesday, October 27th
Ohio doesn’t let you request a mail ballot entirely online. You fill out the Secretary of State’s application, print it, sign it, and mail it or hand-deliver it to your county board of elections. It needs your Ohio driver’s license or state ID number, the last four digits of your Social Security number, or a copy of your photo ID. Your application has to reach your county board by Tuesday, October 27th. Get the absentee application here.
Here’s the part a lot of people don’t know yet. Under a new state law, your ballot has to arrive at your county board by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. A postmark doesn’t count anymore. If it’s getting close, don’t mail it. Hand-deliver it to your county board’s office, or to its drop box if your board has one. Only you or certain close relatives can return your ballot, and only to your own county board, never to a polling place.
4. Vote on Election Day: Tuesday, November 3rd
Polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. If you’re in line at 7:30, stay in line, because you still get to vote. Your assigned polling place may not be the closest one to your house, so look yours up here before you go.
5. Bring an unexpired photo ID, early or on Election Day
Any one of these works:
- Ohio driver’s license, Ohio state ID card, or BMV interim ID form
- U.S. passport or passport card
- U.S. military ID, Ohio National Guard ID, or VA ID
Forget your ID? You can still cast a provisional ballot, but for it to count, you have to bring your photo ID to your county board within four days after Election Day.
The governor’s race: Ramaswamy’s signed survey
Vivek Ramaswamy signed our gubernatorial candidate survey 100% pro-gun. That’s a signed, written commitment on the Freedom to Carry Act, the Second Amendment Protection Act, self-defense protections, repealing gun-free zones and preemption, plus a pledge to veto rifle and magazine bans, gun registration and Red Flag laws.
We told you in the spring and we’ll tell you again: he didn’t return that survey until after early voting in the primary had already started. But he signed it, every answer pro-gun, and Ohio Gun Owners intends to hold him to every word of it.
His Democrat opponent, Amy Acton, has been a lot more careful about guns. For months, her campaign website promised “common sense reforms to reduce the scourge of gun violence.” Then that line quietly disappeared from the site. But in August, her campaign told The Plain Dealer she backs “stronger background checks, and red flag laws.” Just last month, she promised on X to “support common-sense gun safety.” And Everytown, Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control group, named her a “Gun Sense Candidate,” a label it gives politicians who it says “will support stronger gun laws.”
If you’ve been in this fight for any length of time, you know exactly what “common-sense gun safety” and red flag laws mean for you and your guns.
Your legislators’ records on SAPA and Freedom to Carry
Any politician can tell you he supports the Second Amendment. Speeches are cheap. Roll call votes, co-sponsorships and tabling motions are on the record, so Ohio Gun Owners went through the record on the two bills that tell you the most about where a legislator really stands: the Second Amendment Protection Act and the Freedom to Carry Act.
The SAPA and Freedom to Carry scorecard
From the official Ohio House Journal and the legislature’s bill records.
Freedom to Carry Act, Ohio House, June 10, 2026
Voted Down 75 to 21
Rep. Jennifer Gross offered the Freedom to Carry Act as an amendment to House Bill 667. Majority Floor Leader Marilyn John moved to table it, and the majority of House Republicans voted with the gun-grabbing Democrats, 75 to 21, to kill it that way. All 21 votes against tabling, the pro-gun side, came from conservative Republicans.
Second Amendment Preservation Act, Ohio House, December 11, 2024
Tabled 56 to 35
Then-Rep. D. J. Swearingen offered SAPA as an amendment to Senate Bill 58. Rep. Marilyn John moved to table it, and the House voted 56 to 35 to kill it.
Earlier in that same General Assembly, SAPA (then House Bill 51) cleared two House committees. Then it got sent back to the Rules Committee, twice, both times “without objection.” That means no roll call and no names on the record, and that’s where SAPA died.
The bottom line: 78 legislators still in office have cast at least one anti-gun vote on these two bills, 42 Republicans and 36 Democrats. Thirty-nine of them voted to table both, 20 Democrats and 19 Republicans.
The 19 Republicans who voted to table BOTH SAPA and Freedom to Carry
- Rep. Cindy Abrams (House District 29)
- Rep. Adam C. Bird (House District 63)
- Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel (House District 79)
- Rep. Gary Click (House District 88)
- Rep. Rodney Creech (House District 40)
- Rep. Haraz N. Ghanbari (House District 75)
- Rep. Adam Holmes (House District 97)
- Rep. James M. Hoops (House District 81)
- Rep. Marilyn John (House District 76)
- Rep. Roy Klopfenstein (House District 82)
- Rep. Brian Lampton (House District 70)
- Rep. Gayle Manning (House District 52)
- Rep. Riordan T. McClain (House District 87)
- Rep. Kevin D. Miller (House District 69)
- Rep. Phil Plummer (House District 39)
- Rep. Bill Roemer (House District 31)
- Rep. Jim Thomas (House District 49)
- Rep. Andrea White (House District 36)
- Rep. Tom Young (House District 37)
They co-sponsored Freedom to Carry, then voted to table it
Fifteen of the 31 sponsors and co-sponsors of the Freedom to Carry Act (House Bill 495) voted to table their own bill’s language on June 10th:
- Rep. Josh Williams (House District 44), the bill’s joint sponsor
- Rep. Marilyn John (House District 76), who made the motion to table it
- Rep. Rodney Creech (House District 40)
- Rep. Kellie Deeter (House District 54)
- Rep. Adam Holmes (House District 97)
- Rep. Matthew Kishman (House District 50)
- Rep. Roy Klopfenstein (House District 82)
- Rep. Riordan T. McClain (House District 87)
- Rep. Melanie Miller (House District 67)
- Rep. Johnathan Newman (House District 80)
- Rep. Justin Pizzulli (House District 90)
- Rep. Kevin Ritter (House District 94)
- Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel (House District 79)
- Rep. David Thomas (House District 65)
- Rep. Heidi Workman (House District 72)
A special class of Benedict Arnolds
The worst of the bunch: they pledged 100% pro-2A support, then stabbed you in the back
These 13 Republicans told Ohio Gun Owners in writing, on our candidate survey, that they’d sponsor or co-sponsor the Freedom to Carry Act. Then on June 10th, every one of them voted to table it.
They put it in writing when they wanted your vote, and then they voted to kill the bill anyway. That’s not a change of heart. That’s a stab in the back.
- Rep. Rodney Creech (House District 40). Promised: co-sponsor (2026 survey). Voted: table it. He also voted to table SAPA in 2024, then promised on our 2026 survey to co-sponsor it.
- Rep. Kellie Deeter (House District 54). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 and 2026 surveys). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Michael D. Dovilla (House District 17). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 survey). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Adam Holmes (House District 97). Promised: co-sponsor (2026 survey). Voted: table it. He also promised on our 2022 survey to co-sponsor SAPA, then voted to table SAPA in December 2024.
- Rep. Melanie Miller (House District 67). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 survey), then sponsor or co-sponsor (2026 survey). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Justin Pizzulli (House District 90). Promised: sponsor or co-sponsor (2024 survey), then co-sponsor (2026 survey). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Kevin Ritter (House District 94). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 survey). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Jodi Salvo (House District 51). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 and 2026 surveys). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Nick Santucci (House District 64). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 survey). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Brian Stewart (House District 12). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 and 2026 surveys). Voted: table it.
- Rep. David Thomas (House District 65). Promised: co-sponsor (2024 and 2026 surveys). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Bernie Willis (House District 74). Promised: sponsor or co-sponsor (2024 and 2026 surveys). Voted: table it.
- Rep. Heidi Workman (House District 72). Promised: sponsor (2024 survey), then sponsor or co-sponsor (2026 survey). Voted: table it.
Promises are from the candidate surveys these legislators returned to Ohio Gun Owners. Votes are from the official Ohio House Journal.
Where the bills stand today
All three are stuck in committee. The SAPA bill, House Bill 382 from Rep. Tex Fischer, has 34 co-sponsors. House Bill 495, the Freedom to Carry Act from Rep. Jennifer Gross has 29. The Senate version, Senate Bill 392 from Sens. Al Cutrona and Terry Johnson, has 6.
It’s never only a binary choice
Check your own state rep and senator before you vote. If a race on your ballot comes down to a gun grabber and a Republican who voted to table Freedom to Carry or SAPA, you don’t have to reward either one.
Leaving a race blank is legal in Ohio, and it doesn’t touch the rest of your ballot. Your votes in every other race still count. You don’t have to vote in every race.
How to leave a race blank
On a paper ballot: just leave the ovals in that race empty and go on to the next one.
Made a mistake? Ask a poll worker for a new ballot. You can get up to three paper ballots in total.
On a screen or scanner: if it warns you about a race you skipped, that’s normal. Confirm and keep going, or ask a poll worker for help.
Just don’t skip the whole ballot. Every race with a pro-gun choice deserves your consideration.
See where the candidates stand
Ohio Gun Owners’ elections page is where you’ll find our candidate survey information.
| SEE THE CANDIDATE SURVEYS |
You can also read the candidate surveys on our elections page.
Don’t wait for November 3rd
SAPA has been bottled up for two General Assemblies now, and the one time Freedom to Carry reached the House floor, they tabled it. Well, the next election starts today. The only thing a politician respects is gun owners who watch the record and show up to vote on it.
So check your registration, grab your photo ID, and find your early-vote location. Then take some family members or a buddy with you. Election Day lines get long, mail gets slow, and life gets in the way. A ballot you cast this week is one less thing that can go wrong.
Early voting is open right now. Go vote pro-gun, and go vote early.
For Freedom,
Rob Knisley
Political Director
Ohio Gun Owners
P.S. Voting by mail? Your application has to reach your county board by Tuesday, October 27th, and your ballot has to arrive by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, because a postmark won’t save it anymore. Voting in person? Early voting ends at 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 1st, and there’s none on Monday. Either way, don’t leave it to chance. Vote pro-gun, and vote early.